music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Put Your Hand in the Hand" is a gospel pop song composed by Gene MacLellan and first recorded by Canadian singer Anne Murray from her third studio album Honey, Wheat and Laughter.

"Put Your Hand in the Hand"
Single by Ocean
from the album Put Your Hand in the Hand
B-side	"Tear Down the Fences"
Released	February 1971[1]
Recorded	1970
Genre	Pop, gospel
Length	2:52 3:53 – Remix 2006
Label	Kama Sutra
Songwriter(s)	Gene MacLellan
Producer(s)	Greg Brown, Ocean
Ocean singles chronology
"Put Your Hand in the Hand" (1971) "Deep Enough for Me" (1970)
Audio
"Put Your Hand in the Hand" (single edit) on YouTube

It became a hit single for the Canadian band Ocean, released as their debut single and title track to their debut album. The song peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, kept from No. 1 by "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night.[2] The song also reached No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[3] It went on to become 22nd best-seller of 1971.

After MacLellan's suicide in 1995, his friend and fellow Atlantic Canadian musician Ron Hynes wrote the song "Godspeed" as a tribute, the lyrics for which reference the title of this song.[4]

The song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.[5] A remix from the same year adds an instrumental, which occurs between the second chorus and the second verse, as well as a repeat of the chorus and a final instrumentalist chorus, that ends without the fade.[6]

Track listing

7" single

A1 "Put Your Hand in the Hand" – 2:52
A2 "Tear Down the Fences" – 2:53

Chart history

Weekly charts

Ocean

Cover versions

The song was covered in the 1970s by a number of other performers, including Elvis Presley (who also covered MacLellan's "Snowbird"), Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Frankie Laine, Donny Hathaway, Joan Baez, Shirley Caesar, Dutch group Himalaya, the Les Humphries Singers, a German-language version ("Ich fand eine Hand") [I Found a Hand] by Cindy & Bert, a French-language version ("Prends ma main") by Canadian singer Renée Martel, and recorded by Bing Crosby for his 1972 album Bing 'n' Basie. It was also covered, and often sung in concert, by Anita Bryant.

Evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong rendered his take on the song in a January 1976 episode of Hee Haw. Country acts Sandy Posey, Lynn Anderson, Loretta Lynn, and The Oak Ridge Boys also recorded the song.

South African singer Ray Dylan recorded it on his 2009 album Goeie Ou Country - Op Aanvraag.[20]

Later uses

• In a 1991 episode of the sitcom Family Matters titled "Choir Trouble", the cast was singing the song in their church as part of their Gospel Fest.
• In the 2013 film Prisoners.
• In a 2017 episode of US television series Last Man Standing titled “Take Me to Church”

References

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